An Interview With Congresswoman Sandy Adams

Sandy Adams, who has been endorsed by Allen West and Sarah Palin, is going up against John Mica. Both Adams and Mica are already in Congress, but because of redistricting, they’re being forced to go toe-to-toe in the 7th congressional district of Florida. The interview was done on Chick-fil-A appreciation day last week. I had just gotten back from Chick-fil-A and Sandy told me she ate there, too.

What follows is an edited transcript of our conversation.

Why should conservatives select you over John Mica?

Well, I think it’s very easy. Maybe 20 years ago John Mica came to Washington with the right intentions. But, he’s become part of Washington. He’s been here, he’s helped create the mess that the voters sent me in and 86 other freshman last election, in 2010, to come up here and fix. He’s been part of creating that. So I think that it’s very logical when you ask the question that you can’t expect him to really fix the mess that he was part of creating.

Okay, let me ask you a question about an important issue that even a lot of Republicans don’t want to touch it. Do you agree with the way the TSA is treating people in the airports and if not, what should they be doing differently?

I usually get a good pat-down every week. …The TSA has grown into a very large bureaucracy, and I might add, my opponent who created it and has been the oversight of this agency all these years. It needs strict oversight. I think there are things that can be done to fix it. But, I think it’s going to take, you know. someone with the will to do it and we have got to be more realistic about what the real threats are, who the real threats are and how we make sure that we’re addressing the possible threats — not someone’s grandmother or somebody’s baby.

So you don’t agree with the current way they’re handling the searches?

Well, I think that there need to be some changes. But, I don’t want to go and talk about a lot of the stuff that I think could be changed without really digging in deep. My law enforcement background tells me that there is a lot more to this than what anyone could just say as a sound bite for a political thing. It needs to be addressed; let’s just put it that way.

If you were grading Barack Obama’s performance as president what letter grade would you give him and why?

F.

F. Why would he get an F?

Well, because when he was campaigning, Obama said a lot of wonderful things and told people a lot of wonderful things. Instead of doing what he said he was going to do — and that was to get our economy back on track, focus on getting jobs back, and make sure that we are still a leader in space, he’s done the exact opposite. He focused on his agenda, which was a government takeover of our health care, growing government, and spending more money. Our economy is showing the results of that.

Last question: let’s say the dream scenario unfolds in November. You win, Mitt Romney wins, we take back the Senate, we hold the majority in the House; what do you think our priorities should be?

The economy.

The economy?

The economy and when I say the economy, that includes repealing Obamacare because as you and everybody else in America has just learned from the Supreme Court’s ruling, this is a tax increase on the American people at every income level. It also is going to harm our businesses. ..You have to continue to address the economy and what you have seen from the House side is we have passed bill after bill after bill to deal with the regulations and the economy and jobs helping to create an environment for our businesses to grow and thrive.

At the same time the Senate has totally ignored it. They haven’t worked with us on it. The president has been implementing rules and regulations that are strangling our businesses. So I think if it all works out and there’s a Republican House, a Republican president and Republican majority in the Senate then maybe, just maybe we’ll get the Senate to work with us to help get this great country back on track.

I lived the American Dream. I know it’s out there and I taught my daughter that she could be or do anything she wanted as long as she was willing to work for it. Where else in the world could someone who quit high school to join the Air Force, as a single parent working two and three jobs just to make ends meet, who eventually put herself and her daughter through school and college, be able to be a member of Congress?